1. Linking ICTs to Rural
Development: China’s
Rural Information Policy
Jun Xia
Government Information Quarterly 27(2010) 187-195
Lia Puspitasari
University of Tsukuba

2. Introduction
 Status of China’s ICT (before 2010)
 Characterization of the Rural Information
Policy System in China
 Conclusions

AGENDA

3. Access
Application
Village
Informatization
program (VIP)
VAPs

4. 
Intended to ‘informatize’ China’s rural
communities by:
◦ Improving rural access to communications
infrastructures, including telephone,
television, and the internet; (kasih
ilustrasi devicesnya)
◦ Providing applications of so-called
‘comprehensive information services’,
including township government websites,
information service stations, and
agriculture-related websites and ecommerce portals.
INTRODUCTION

5. Integration of access and applications in
China’s rural communications policy has
been more a practical coincidence than
based on a rigorous and intentional
theoretical deliberation.
 The disparity in economic reform between
rural and urban areas has emerged
unbalanced economic development and
social stability.

INTRODUCTION

6. The absence of explicitly defined
objectives and effective organization, the
nationwide VIP activities have appeared to
be uncoordinated.
 Lack of coordination results:

◦ Inadequate investment;
◦ Wasteful duplicate construction;
◦ Information projects tend to be low in
utilization rate and poor in maintenance.
INTRODUCTION

7. Current Status (before 2010)
 Level
-
-
-
of major indicators in terms of
residents’ access to telephones, television
and the internet services in rural
communities of China roughly 1/3 of urban
counterparts.
Being a rural dweller mean accepting an
extremely unfavorable status in almost all
socio economic aspects.
The deployment of ICTs in rural areas has
profound political, economical, and socio
cultural implications.
Rural informatization is in need.
STATUS OF ICT

8. Two phases of informatization initiatives
1. The Village Access Projects (VAPs)
Objective: telephone/television to each
village
conventional line-ministry system in
China remains a practical governance
solution in mobilizing and organizing
nation wide resources for public
projects.

9. Before 1998 1998 - 2004
Executed
by China
telecom
Suspensi
on due
to
industry
restructu
ring
History of VAPs
2005
Renewed
by The
MII
Access
task
distribut
ed to 6
carriers
2006 – 2008
Access
penetrati
on
reached
99.7%

10. 2. The Village Informatization Program
(VIP)
Universal
service/digital
divide
Comprehensive
information
service
Weaknesses
1. Objectives are vague;
2. Institutional arrangement is not clearly defined;
3. The regime left the implementation to department and/or
regional interpretations and discretions.
4. Execution mainly relied on disconnected, sporadic,
departmental and/or regional initiatives, and so called ‘action
projects’ or ‘model projects’

11. Characterization of current rural
information policy system
Too many various documents as guidance
Diversified or decentralized and fragmented
across various department
 Government department more often engaged
in independent projects
 Unable to capitalize on its merit side in he
absence of a coherent system of policies and
organization



13. Suggestion to the next move
1. Definition of objectives
2. Technical solutions
3. Institutional design, should be evaluated
based on:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Integrity
Measurability
Transparency
Equality
Consistency
Neutrality
Cost-effectiveness

14. CONCLUSION
 Biggest problem are objective, and
sustainable institutional arrangement
 Layer based localization regulatory is the best
model which highlights the role of local
government.
Lessons drawn
 How to translate the implementation of a
national rural information strategy
 Unique case in which ideological/political
forces are capitalized
 How to integrate into a single national public
program which tend to the multi-channeled
and regionalized/localized.